Taking sides; Glockenspiel vs Xylophone...

er the name does at least

See also marimba, vibraphone, steel drums. But all are pretty much in the accordian family as far as rock instrumentation is concerned...

kate do you want to play 'drone' on my album? (I aim to begin recording in 2005.)

ha ha, if I get credited like Sonic Boom did on the Jazz Butcher album, I will!

a vibraphone is basically the electric version. it has a motor that allows you to get sustain and vibrato.

All 'songs' written and produced by NJ Southall (except track 5 written by Bacharach/David.

'Musicians' featured;
NJ Southall; xylophone, triangle, radio-hum, vocals, 'e' chord on guitar, samples.
kate St. Clair; Drone, vocals, actual guitar playing.
Emma Royle; Handclaps, tambourine.
Dan Fell; Bass, drums.
'Tom'; Drums, bass, trumpet.

Tracklisting
1; Oh For Fuck's Sake
2; Drone
3; My Mother Was A Special Needs Teacher
4; The Bark Psychosis One
5; Walk On By
6; The Loaning
7; You Can Call Me Nick
8; Folktronica Is So Passé
9; Spaceman Pen

AMG Rating; *****

"Blah blah blah wiffle wiffle piff piff..." Stephen Thomas Erlewhine

No, no, it would have to be like this:

Masonic Boom: Feedback.

An unusual enough debut but one of many such albums continuing to emerge on the home CDR label front following the mid-decade collapse of regular distribution channels into AppleCorps.Com, The Psychedelic Soul Review is something at once of its time and echoing the past. Given that this is a first album effort, it's not a surprise to find so much on the album that's rendolent of the past, caught somewhere between the Left Banke's sweetly mournful psych-pop and, say, early Porcupine Tree's more tongue in cheek playfulness with that kind of sound. That said, things aren't always so downbeat to be sure -- "My Mother Was a Special Needs Teacher" is as engagingly peppy and ridiculous as could be imagined, while "Folktronica Is So Passe" (accurate enough as a sentiment but admittedly a few years old already) is a gloriously sunny singalong. But band leader Nick Southall's emphasis on xylophone as a lead instrument shows that he's got a vision to do something different than simply trying to recreate the Mike Curb Congregation, as the Polyphonic Spree's increasingly tedious multi-disc releases made painfully clear. Avoiding the ghost of go-nowhere post-rock with skill -- there's a reason one song is called "The Bark Psychosis One" rather than invoking something from Chicago -- Southall adds enough reverb and echo to evoke alternately fragile and haunting atmospheres throughout. Southall's not the only bandmember to standout, though -- Masonic Boom contributes only feedback and does a brilliant job with it, from the cascading flows on the remake of "Walk On By" to the triumphant tribute/extension of a sound on "Spacemen Pen," which sounds like eighteen Vox Starstreamers firing off all at once and still capturing a perfect hummable melody. Credit as well to calling one track "Drone" and simply and easily creating just that.

::RAGE::

DID YOU EVEN LISTEN TO THE RECORD, ETC. ETC. ETC.?!?!?!?

What's really frightening is how spot-on you probably would be. Which gives credence to the idea that you really *don't* have to listen to records to review them.

Ned, I kiss you.

See, self containned in a case!